1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the assembly and connection of panel systems to partition office or industrial space into work areas and more particularly to a panel interlock arrangement for connecting two or more panels together through the use of cammed clips attached to the vertical frame members of a panel and a vertical retaining post which engages the clips of each panel being interconnected to form a wall panel assembly.
2. Background
Different types of space divider systems are known in the prior art. Typically, one constructs a space divider system by interconnecting wall panel sections to form furniture arrangements which include desks, work area partitions, and office cubicle arrangements. These systems provide a convenient way to divide large interior office space into smaller work areas. The walls of such systems provide a more private and less noisy work environment than is otherwise available in open office spaces. The panels typically include a vertical row of slots on a post for mounting brackets for supporting shelves and the like.
Panels arrangements have become particularly useful in certain types of modern offices where the cost of construction walls to form individual offices may be prohibitive, or where it is desired to provide partitions of various heights, sizes add designs for aesthetic reasons. Moreover, with a higher frequency of offices being rearranged, reorganized or moved to other locations or buildings, it is highly desirable to be able to quickly assemble furniture and partitions to suit particular needs, and thereafter to be able to easily disassemble such arrangements and move them elsewhere.
Thus, much of the prior art illustrating space divider systems is directed towards the joining arrangement used to interconnect panels. A proper joining arrangement should securely and tightly join adjacent panels. The joining arrangement must include lateral and transverse stabilizing means. Because one frequently rearranges or moves the systems, it is also essential that the systems are easily assembled and disassembled.
Many known panel arrangements of the type used to construct office furniture, office partitions and similar structures suffer from deficiencies which limit the usefulness of such arrangements. One problem found in such arrangements is the difficulty often encountered in joining the individual panels to one another and, once joined, in thereafter easily separating the panels for rearrangement or relocation.
For example, one prior art system discloses a wall partition system in which the wall partitions are held together by a connector strip having a plurality outwardly and downwardly extending connectors for mating with corresponding upwardly and outwardly extending connectors attached to the vertical end sections on each of the opposing wall partitions. This system can be difficult to install because it requires the assemblies simultaneously to mate each of the pairs of connectors.
Other types of panel joining arrangement utilize bottom connectors and top connectors, which have a variety of designs. For example some systems use horizontal stiffening plates at the top and bottom to join adjacent panels. The bottom stiffening plate is difficult to install because it requires the assembler to make adjustment with tools at that low position. The bottom element may require that panels be turned upside down or in any event placed so as to afford access to the panel bottoms, a technique which has proven to be cumbersome considering the relatively substantial weight of many such panels and particularly in arrangements where a number of the panels are to be assembled into a particular complex.